Your opinion please

The funniest thing about the 3-Wolf shirt is the initial review was penned as satirical by a student at Rutgers University. He does not even own the shirt, but the initial review has spawn hundreds of similar reviews. The company had nothing to do with the review; simply this joke was meant to be the butt of a joke. However, now it's the #1 apparel selling item on Amazon. Marketing, as you've said, is a POWERFUL tool when used in the hands of people for manipulation.

This is an example of why I take on-line reviews with a grain of salt.

I know, right?


God, I want that shirt.

Over the past several years I have done an increasing amount of Internet research before making many purchases (especially big-ticket items), but still refrain from purchasing them on-line and prefer going to the store, where I can touch and inspect...

but still refrain from purchasing them on-line and prefer going to the store, where I can touch and inspect...

Yeah I heard men like to shop that way.

Yeah, even though I do like to support local, it is EXTREMELY convenient to be able to browse the web for a bit at two AM, place an order, and have it arrive at your door a couple days later.

As others have said, you really should do it for any big-ticket items. Electronics, etc.

I've bought two cars off of Ebay.

My computer came in the mail from Dell.

My digital SLR Canon was researched through various photo-geek sites, then bought online (can't remember which site).

One word of advice on researching is to go to sites that specialize in th product. So for the camera, you go to photo-geek forums. One size fits all places like consumer reports have their place, but there is nothing like "talking" to the real experts - the people who live and breathe these products. Forums are very valuable. (kinda like talking about food and beverage HERE !!)..

I have a coffee roaster site, where we all sort of chum around, and share ideas, questions and advice on anything and everything. So if someone is buying a new grill or tv or whatever, we solicit opinions. It is like having a thousand friends to ask for advice. Very cool. Combine that with some bigger sites and you get a good idea of what is out there..

For food while traveling, as a vegetarian, I go to HappyCow.com . For beer, pubcrawler.com . We used happycow.com when I was in Berlin two months ago!

Cheers!

-Nimbus, tech-savvy news junkie

The 3-wolf shirt notwithstanding, I find Amazon extremely useful in quickly getting a feel for the qualities, pros and cons of an item, regardless of whether I'll be purchasing it on-line or in a bricks-and-mortar store.

Frankly, we buy a good deal of items on Amazon because, by clicking on a link on our Greyhound adoption group's website, 4 to 6 percent of the purchase price is paid back to GPA/Louisville as a "referral fee". This kind of passive fundraising is really important for our organization.

Many, many times, Amazon's got the best price available on-line and so it's a double bonus for us. I buy supplies or equipment for my office, goods for our home, even occasionally things for church on Amazon. And the customer reviews are usually very helpful. If your purchases qualify or if you are an Amazon Prime member, very often the shipping is free and delivery is often overnight because Amazon has a major distribution center here in Kentucky.

I didn't inherit the shopping gene. I'd rather take a whipping than go to the mall. (My hubby doesn't realize how lucky he is!) Shopping on-line is a real blessing for me.

Lois

While I agree with others that I definitely check on-line, I still view it with some degree of skepticism (sp?).

I've done a lot of research on Internet reviews for clients, and in general a buyer is much more likely to write a review if the purchase was an unexpectedly bad one, and then somewhat more likely if it were much better than expected. If it performed pretty much as advertised, most will not write a review.

In other words, I'd recommend reading the reviews, look for common threads, but take them with a grain of salt. If there are around three times as many bad reviews as good, you've likely found an overall good product! If there are twice as many bad, you've possibly found a gem. If there's a common thread ("the knife is hard to grip"), then go to the store and try it yourself.